By Dan Nowicki | The Arizona Republic
U.S. Sen. John McCain and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu walked side by side along the border in a 2010 television commercial in which McCain memorably called for the completion of “the danged fence.” But they are at odds over this year’s Senate immigration-reform bill.
Babeu, the Republican border hard-liner who uttered “Senator, you’re one of us” in McCain’s now-famous re-election ad, on Thursday criticized the comprehensive bipartisan legislation negotiated by McCain, R-Ariz., and his fellow members of the “Gang of Eight.”
The Senate bill’s sweeping overhaul of the immigration system would include up to $6.5 billion for border security as well as a pathway to earned citizenship for most of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country.
“I strongly oppose … what is referred to as the Gang of Eight plan because they offer all of these other items of a path to citizenship prior to ascertaining and guaranteeing that the border is secure, that the laws are enforced,” Babeu said in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in support of a tougher House proposal.
In an interview Friday with The Arizona Republic, McCain said he wasn’t surprised by Babeu’s opposition to his bill.
